A Comparative Study between Gamma and UV Radiation of Jute fabrics/Polypropylene Composites: Effect of Starch

Jute fabrics (hessian cloth) reinforced polypropylene (PP) matrix composites were fabricated by compression molding. Jute fabrics and matrices were irradiated with gamma and UV radiation at different doses. Mechanical properties of irradiated jute fabrics and matrices based composites were found to increase significantly. Optimized jute fabrics were treated with starch solution of different concentrations for different soaking time and composite made of 0.5% (for UV) and 0.3% (for gamma) starch treated jute fabrics (5 min soaking time) showed the best mechanical properties. Scanning electron microscopic analysis of untreated and treated composites was also performed.